LIFE: A Professional Development Partnership

LIFE: A Professional Development Partnership

LIFE is a professional development partnership between Lawrence Township Schools (Brook Park, Harrison Hill and Winding Ridge), Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS # 48), Fairview Elementary School, and Indiana University Bloomington.

LIFE focuses on increasing teachers’ knowledge of Mathematics and English/Language Arts in ways that support ambitious instruction. We advocate instruction that empowers students in multiple ways by building on their personal and cultural experiences to develop high levels of competence and positive attitudes towards education. As such, our approach helps teachers develop the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively design instruction that integrates core disciplinary concepts in Mathematics and English/Language Arts to examine and solve problems that are of both local and global significance and also personally meaningful to students. We will target a core set of teachers to develop leadership capacity within schools and across the district as this bodes well for sustained teacher growth and development beyond the life of the project. The Center for P-16 Research and Collaboration at Indiana University’s School of Education facilitates the project among elementary school teachers and faculty from Indiana University-Bloomington’s School of Education, the Monroe County Community School Corporation, Indianapolis Public Schools, and the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township.